Site Building 106

Add a Custom Domain

Every site comes with a basic URL (called a domain name) that looks like: example.site.moboom.com. When you launch your site, you probably want something a little more personalized—like yourcustomaddress.com.

1. Open your DNS Zone File on GoDaddy

First, open your DNS Zone File, which is where you’ll make the changes.

After signing in to your GoDaddy account, click My Account at the top of the screen, and then click Visit My Account.

Next, click Domains to expand that section.

Then find your domain, and click Manage.

Next, click to the DNS Zone File tab.

Next, you’ll add two A records that point your domain name to your site. Don’t worry if you don’t know what an A record is, this guide will walk through the process.

2. Set up two A records with GoDaddy

Now, you’ll create two A records that point to your site:

NAME TYPE VALUE
----------------------------------------
mycustomurl.net. A 52.24.71.213
mycustomurl.net. A 52.24.79.162

First though, you’ll need to delete records that already exist and could conflict.

To see if you already have A records set up:

Look under the A (host) section, which is at the top. Delete any records with @ as the Host (click the Trash button).

You may also have conflicting CNAME records:

In the CName (Alias) section, look for a record with www as the Host and @ in the Points To column. Delete that record.

Note That CNAME record points www.mycustomurl.net to mycustomurl.net. So visitors who type the www see the same site as visitors who don’t. While this action is a good thing, for SEO purposes, Google recommends using a different method, which we’ll talk about later.

Now, add the records:

Click Add Record.

For the Record Type, select A (Host).

For Host, enter @

For Points To, enter 52.24.71.213

Note The @ symbol just refers to your whole domain (mycustomurl.net) and the numbers (52.24.71.213) are IP address of Moboom’s servers. So this record points your domain to Moboom.

For the TTL, you can either leave it at 1 hour, or if you want to see the change sooner, select Custom, and then enter 600 seconds (10 minutes).

Note A shorter time means you can see the changes sooner, but your site might take longer to load (because of something called DNS caching). So once you get everything working, go back and change the TTL to a longer value like 1 hour or even 1 week.

Now, click Add Another, and leave the Host and TTL the same, but change Points To to: 52.24.79.162.

Then click Finish.

Next, click Save Changes to save.

Now your domain (mycustomurl.net) is set up, but if someone types in www before your domain (www.mycustomurl.net), they’ll get the message: Site not available.

Next, you’ll set up a redirect to handle this issue (which is the method that Google recommends).

3. Manage www domains with GoDaddy

Now, you’ll go into your domain settings to add a 301 redirect, so when someone types in www.mycustomurl.net, they’ll be redirected to mycustomurl.net.

Note You can actually handle this issue in a variety of ways that will technically work. However, the method we describe here is the method that Google recommends, so if you care about SEO, then this is the method that you should use.

To add the 301 redirect:

Click the Settings tab.

Scroll down and find the Forwarding section, and then under Subdomain, click Manage.

Next, click Add Subdomain Forwarding.

For Subdomain, enter: www

In Forward To, enter your domain (mycustomurl.net), and then click Preview to verify that you’ve entered the correct URL.

Leave the other settings alone (Redirect Type should be 301, and Forward Settings should be Forward only), and click Add.

Now click Save to finish.

You’ll probably see the updates pretty quickly, but GoDaddy warns that your updates could take up to 48 hours to completely come through.

1. Open DNS records

So sign in to name.com, and then from the list of My Domains, click your domain.

Click the DNS Records tab to open it.

Next, you’ll add two A records.

2. Add two A records

To direct your domain to your site, you’ll create two A records:

NAME TYPE VALUE
-----------------------------------------
mycustomdomain.net. A 52.24.71.213
mycustomdomain.net. A 52.24.79.162

So on the DNS Records tab, for the Type select A.

Leave Host blank.

For Answer, enter: 52.24.71.213

Then click Add Record to add the record.

Next add another record with same Type (A) and Host (leave blank).

For the Answer, enter: 52.24.79.162

Next you’ll create a redirect, so when someone types www.mycustomdomain.net, they’ll see the same site as visitors who leave off the www.

3. Manage www subdomain

Now, you’ll go into your domain settings to add a 301 redirect, so when someone types in www.mycustomdomain.net, they’ll be redirected to mycustomdomain.net.

Note You can actually handle this issue in a variety of ways that will technically work. However, the method we describe here is the method that Google recommends, so if you care about SEO, then this is the method that you should use.

To add the redirect:

Click the URL Forwarding tab.

Under Domain, add www

In Forwards to, add your domain: http://mycustomdomain.net

For Type, select Redirect.

And then click Add Forwarding.

Your domain will probably start working in a few minutes, but it could take 24 hours or more.

1. Create a zone file

Tip When signing in, you’ll use a handle that Gandi created for you. The handle ends in ‑GANDI and looks like: ABC123‑GANDI. When you initially signed up, Gandi should have sent you an email with your handle.

The next step is to create a new zone file. So click DNS Zones.

Then click on the current Zone File, which might be called Default Gandi zone file.

Note If you have multiple files, you'll want to edit the one your domain uses. Go back to the Domains page, and then click on your domain. In the bottom right, you'll see a Zone files section. The zone file is listed under Zone used. So instead of copying the default zone file, skip right to editing this one.

For the Name, enter: @. (The @ symbol is shorthand for your full domain: yourcustomaddress.com.)

For Type, select A.

For Data, enter: 52.24.71.213

Next, click +, and enter another IP address: 52.24.79.162

Click Add to finish adding theA records.

This will direct yourcustomaddress.com to your site. Next, add a redirect in case someone types in www.yourcustomaddress.com.

Add a subdomain redirect (Google Domains)

You want visitors who type in yourcustomaddress.com to go to the same place as visitors who type in www.yourcustomaddress.com. To do that, you’ll create a 301 redirect.

To create a redirect:

Scroll up to the Synthetic records section, and for the type of redirect, select Subdomain forward.

For Subdomain, enter: www

For the Destination URL, enter your domain name including http:// (e.g., http://yourcustomdomain.com).

Click Add to finish adding the redirect.

That’s it. Your domain should start working in a few moments, but don’t worry if it doesn’t start working right away. Depending on a variety of factors, sometimes these changes can take up to 72 hours come through.

Setting up your domain can be daunting—especially if you’ve never set up a domain before. Unfortunately, every registrar works a little differently, so if you do something wrong, it’s also hard to tell exactly what the problem is.

Remember to Tell Moboom your domain

Pick your preferred domain

Many people don’t realize that yourcustomaddress.com and www.yourcustomaddress.com are different URLs (just like mail.google.com is different than google.com).

When setting up your domain, pick which version you prefer (www or non-www) and use a 301 redirect to point the non-preferred at the preferred.

Note The guides on this page assume that your preferred domain is without the www.

Point your non-preferred domain to your preferred domain with a 301 redirect (also called a Subdomain forward).

Delete conflicting records

In some cases, your registrar may add extra records by default. These default records might conflict with the ones you just added. If you’re using your domain only for Moboom (and not for email), then delete any extras not mentioned in this guide.

Conflicting records will be A or CNAME records that redirect:

The root level of your domain. Which is your domain without the www—sometimes indicated by @.

The www subdomain. Which is www.yourcustomaddress.com.

Some registrars add extra records that will conflict. If you’re using your domain only for Moboom and you see extra records, delete them.

However, If you’re using your domain for email as well, then you may have to do some research to know if you need these records or not.

Search the support site of whoever handles your email, which could be your domain registrar or a third party (like Google Apps for Business or Office 365).

Note The email related records will generally be MX records, while the conflicting records that you want to delete will be A or CNAME records.

If you use your domain for email, be careful which records you delete. Some of these records might be related to your email.

Also, make sure that you’re not using both A records and CNAME records. Using both types of records might be fine in special circumstances, but generally you should be able to use one or the other. And if you’re using both, then they’re probably conflicting.